^ -5*6 


I 


REPORT  OF 


Delegate 


TO 


Deep  Waterways 
Convention 


Herald  Print  m»^&Pt   Honrtik,  Ohio. 


Talk  of   Hon.    C.    H.    Gallup   Before  the    Norwalk 

Chamber  of  Commerce  on  the  Problem  of 

the  Mighty  Mississippi. 

DECEMBER  8,  1909. 


STENOGRAPHERS  REPORT 

Mr.  Chairman,  Fellow  Members  of  the  Board  of  Commerce: 

You  will  remember  that  some  time  in  October  the  Mayor  of  Norwalk 
appointed  a  delegation  to  represent  Norwalk  at  the  Deep  Waterways  Con- 
vention to  be  held  at  New  Orleans  on  the  3  0th  of  October  and  the  1st  and 
2nd  of  Nevember.  The  Mayor  has  been  criticized  some  for  picking  out  two 
Republicans  and  sending  them  away  just  before  election,  but  the  real  spirit 
of  it  was  the  Mayor  wanted  to  certify  to  the  political  rectitude  of  Major 
Adams  and  myself.    He  couldn't  get  our  votes,  so  he  sent  us  away. 

Now  you  all  know  that  the  enjoyment  of  a  journey  depends  large- 
ly upon  the  company  you  have.  I  can  say  to  you,  Mr.  President,  that  the 
Mayor  could  have  picked  no  better  companion  for  me  than  Major  Adams. 
He  is  one  of  the  pleasantest  traveling  companions  it  has  ever  been  my  lot 
to  wander  with.  On  the  way  to  St.  Louius,  I  stopped  off  at  Culver,  In- 
diana and  spent  part  of  two  days  with  the  Major  at  that  military  institute. 
The  Major  represents  the  power,  the  dignity,  the  majesty  of  the  United 
fctates  Government  at  that  school,  and  they  all  respect  and  love  him.  I 
v/as  proud  of  the  position  he  occupies  there  and  I  am  glad  to  testify  to  it 
here.  He  stands  high  there  and  we  all  have  a  right  to  be  proud  of  his 
position. 

I  have  been  asked  to  tell  you  of  my  trip  down  the  Mississippi  River 
and  my  conclusions.  That  we  may  fully  understand  the  conditions  that 
confront  all  efforts  to  regulate  the  Mississippi  River,  we  want  to  go  back 
;'u  history  of  the  world  perhaps  seven  thousand  years,  when  this  whole 
country  was  covered  with  a  mass  of  ice  from  one  to  two  miles  deep  or 
thick,  extending  from  the  Alleghenies  to  the  Mississippi.  When  that  condi- 
tion existed,  all  water  that  now  drains  through  the  Niagara  River  into 
Lake  Ontario  drained  over  into  the  Mississippi  River  down  through  what 
i.s  now  the  Illinois  River.  It  passed  just  north  of  us.  This  ridge  was  part 
of  the  south  bank  of  the  stream  and  to  this  day  water  runs  both  into  the 
Gulfs  of  St.  Lawrence  and    Mexico  from  the  south  line  of  this  county. 


At  that  time  the  Mississippi  River  was  a  very  much  larger  stream 
than  it  is  today.  We  don't  know,  but  scientists  say  that  the  elevation  of 
the  land  here  was  greater  than  it  is  now;  that  it  has  since  settled  dowi 
and  they  point  to  two  particular  instances  as  evidence  of  that  fact.  The 
present  bottom  of  the  Cuyahoga  River  is  five  hundred  and  fifty  feet  above 
what  it  once  was  and  the  Hudson  River  once  was  five  hundred  feet  deeper 
than  it  is  now.  In  the  recent  effort  on  the  part  of  the  City  of  New  York 
to  carry  water  from  the  Adriondacks  to  supply  the  City  of  New  York,  they 
had  to  run  a  tunnel  under  the  North  River,  the  Hudson  River.  They  had 
to  go  down  five  hundred  feet  before  they  could  get  to  solid  material  to  put 
that  tunnel  through,  because  that  river  once  had  its  bottom  way  down.  It 
has  been  filled  up.  The  same  is  true  of  the  Mississippi  River.  When  this 
grand  water  shed  poured  its  water  over  through  that  outlet  to  the  Gulf  of 
Mexico,  the  Mississippi  River  was  a  stream  two  or  three  hundred  feet  deep- 
er than  it  is  today.  It  ran  through  a  valley  from  forty  to  eighty  miles  wide 
and  had  great  bluffs  on  either  side.  When  the  immense  body  of  ice  began 
to  thaw  and  deposit  its  load  of  boulders,  gravel,  mud,  rocks  ground  up  and 
everything  that  it  had  picked  up  in  its  onward  march  from  the  north  to 
the  south  that  had  been  going  on  for  hundreds  of  thousands  years,  moving 
a  little  at  a  time,  perhaps  a  foot  a  week,  perhaps  two  feet  a  week,  that  im- 
mense plow  of  ice  swept  out  all  the  soft  material  in  its  way.  It  made  the 
basin  of  Lake  Superior,  of  Lake  Michigan,  of  Lake  Huron,  of  Lake  Erie, 
ft  scooped  out  all  that  earth  and  deposited  here,  there  and  all  along.  Our 
ridges,  all  our  gravel  pits,  all  our  sand  hills,  all  our  clay  banks  are  the 
deposit  from  the  melting  ice.  When  the  sun  began  to  assert  its  power,  the 
ice  began  to  melt  very  rapidly,  and  in  the  spring  time  we  have  the  evidence 
along  the  bluffs  of  the  Missouri  River  that  that  river  in  flood  tide  would 
go  up  two  hundred  feet  above  its  ordinary  level,  and  that  discharged  into 
the  Mississippi  Valley.  There  are  narrow  places  now  in  the  Mississippi 
River  where  it  is  over  two  hundred  feet  deep;  that  is  where  it  cuts  the 
( hannel  out.  There  are  other  places  where  it  spreads  out  and  is  only  three 
or  four  feet  deep. 

This  is  one  of  the  conditions  that  has  got  to  be  taken  into  considera- 
tion in  making  the  Mississippi  River  a  deep  waterway.  What  were  its  an- 
tecedents? A  vast  valley  filled  up  with  the  sediment  that  was  deposited  by 
the  glaciers  along  all  the  hills  west  of  the  Alleganies  and  which  has  been 
washing  down  for  perhaps  seven  thousand  years  and  filling  up  that  valley, 
filling  it  up  with  the  debris  that  has  come  down,  and  the  stream  lias  been 
filling  up  and  getting  higher  and  higher,  until  that  valley  from  thirty  to 
eighty  miles  wide  'is  full  of  that  debris.  As  you  go  along  the  river  and  look 
at  the  sand  bluffs,  they  are  all  stratified.  No  matter  how  high  or  how  low, 
they  are  all  stratified  showing  a  water  deposit.  You  see  trees  three  feet 
through,  where  the  bank  has  been  washed  down  straight  you  see  the  body 
of  the  tree  five  or  six  feet  above  its  roots  covered  with  mud,  yet  away 
below  that  for  a  hundred  and  fifty  feet,  it  is  still  stratified  mud  that  has 
been  settling  there. 

Now  I  speak  of  seven  thousand  years.  That  is  a  measure  which  is  ob- 
tained by  watching  the  erosion  of  the  Niagara  limestone  at  Niagara  Falls. 
it  moves  back  from  one  to  two  feet  a  year  and  the  Falls     are  going     up 


stream.  When  you  take  the  distance  from  Lewiston  to  Niagara  Falls,  it 
f;xes  it  at  about  seven  thousand  years.  That  is  the  nearest  we  can  come 
to  putting  our  finger  upon  the  time.  When  the  Mississippi  River  was  such 
an  immense  stream  and  when  the  water  began  to  go  off  in  the  other  direc- 
tion, it  relieved  the  river  of  a  large  amount  of  water  and  that  is  why  the 
sediment  filled  in  so  fast  there.  That  sediment  from  bottom  to  top  is  as  un- 
stable as  you  can  imagine.  The  moment  the  river  squints  at  any  partic- 
ular bank,  that  moment  that  bank  begins  to  come  down.  It  only  has  to 
point  at  it  and  it  comes  down  like  "David  Crockett's  Coon." 

The  first  capital  of  the  state  of  Illinois,  Kaskaskia,  I  think,  (I  haven' 
j'et  found  out  the  correct  spelling, — it  isn't  on  the  map  today)  was  a  cit.' 
of  seven  thousand  inhabitants.  I  saw  five  or  six  houses  left  of  that  city 
When  it  was  the  capital  of  the  state,  the  river  ran  a  mile  west  of  it;  i 
j'.ow  runs  where  the  city  stood,  and  a  little  piece  of  it,  perhaps  a  doze  . 
houses  are  left — over  in  Missouri. 

Island  Number  Ten,  you  will  remember  that  as  being  one  of  the  places 
fortified  by  the  confedei'ates  during  the  late  Civil  War.  The  batteries  were 
commanded  by  that  fighting  Bishop  Leonidas  Polk  of  Tennessee.  Island 
Number  Ten  was  a  large  island;  today  it  isn't  there.  There  is  nothing 
but  a  little  nubbin  left  with  a  few  trees.  The  bluff  that  stood  opposite  Is- 
land Number  Ten  is  gone  and  the  river  runs  where  it  was.  They  tell 
the  story  about  a  Union  sympathizer  who  lived  at  the  next  bend  above  Is- 
hmd  Number  Ten  when  Commodore  Foote  wanted  to  go  down  the  river, 
this  Union  man  got  a  log  and  put  it  in  the  river  at  night,  floated  down  to 
Island  Number  Ten,  quietly  slipped  up  over  the  breastworks,  and  before 
they  knew  he  was  there,  had  the  guns  spiked  and  was  gone.  You  will  te- 
member  the  Sultana  blew  up  at  Island  Number  Ten,  killing  some  twelve 
hundred  union  soldiers.  It  was  said  that  the  coal  had  been  tampered  with 
and  an  explosive  put  in.     But  Island  Number  Ten  isn't  there  today. 

The  Mississippi  River  has  been  called  the  "Father  of  Waters."  I  heard 
Horace  Greely  once  in  the  old  Whittlesey  Hall  call  it  that,  way  back  in 
the  early  50s,  and  I  shall  never  forget  the  way  he  pronounced  it.  The  first 
tning  he  said  was,  "The  Mississippi  River  is  the  Father  of  Waters"  and 
then  went  on  and  told  the  story  about  it.  Now  the  Mississippi  River  is  not 
fcutitled  to  that  name.  It  hasn't  got  a  manly  feature  about  it.  Its  every 
movement  is  fickle.  Whatever  it  undertakes  to  do,  it  does.  "When  it  wills 
it  will,  you  may  depend  upon  it,  and  when  it  won't,  it  won't,  and  that  is 
the  end  of  it."     It  is  feminine  in  every  characteristic. 

I  have  told  you  about  the  city  of  Kaskakia.  Let  me  tell  you  about  the 
forests;  acres,  hundreds  of  acres  of  forests  are  sliding  into  that  river,  the 
tops  all  falling  inland  and  the  roots  out.  You  see  acres  and  acres  of  old 
lorests  going  that  way,  but  every  one  of  them  built  upon  stratified  earth. 

It  is  a  monstrous,  huge  snake,  wriggling  its  way  back  and  forth,  to  one 
side,  to  the  other  side,  times  without  number  swallowing  up  every  thing 
in  its  reach  on  one  bank  and  spewing  it  out  upon  the  other  side,  tearing 
down  here,  building  up  there.  That  is  the  character  of  the  Mississippi 
River  from  the  mouth  of  the  Missouri  to  Natchez.  Natchez  is  about  three 
hundred  miles  from  the  mouth.  From  there  down  it  is  deep  water,  but 
above  everywhere  its  course  is  as  unstable  as  water. 


How  can  it  be  regulated?  It  was  said  by  Archimedes  that  "if  you 
would  give  him  a  lever  and  some  place  to  stand  on,  he  could  lift  the 
world,"  so  if  you  can  get  any  place  to  stand  on  in  the  Mississippi  River, 
you  can  control  it,  but  you  have  got  to  go  down  two  or  three  hundred  feet 
before  you  get  a  foundation  and  that  for  twelve  hundred  miles  or  more,  a 
river  three  thousand  miles  long.  How  are  you  going  to  control  it?  You 
simply  can't  do  it.  There  isn't  money  enough  in  the  world  to  control  it; 
there  isn't  power  enough  in  the  world  to  control  it.  The  United  States  gov- 
ernment has  spent  millions  of  dollars;  the  state  governments  have  spent 
other  millions  of  dollars  along  the  river  in  an  effort  to  try  and  hold  it  back 
and  save  valuable  plantations,  to  save  towns,  to  save  the  country  lying 
back  from  the  river.  That  is  now  protected  by  levees.  The  state  govern- 
ments have  spent  millions  upon  millions  building  great  embankments,  and 
you  see  every  little  ways  a  place  where  the  river  has  just  taken  a  turn  and 
gone  right  under  the  embankments,  and  you  see  the  two  ends  of  the  em- 
bankment standing  there  as  monumental  records  of  the  failure  of  man  to 
control  it.  I  say  the  government  of  the  United  States  has  spent  millions 
of  dollars  in  trying  to  protect  that  land.  They  have  gone  to  the  forests 
for  poles,  three  or  four  to  five  inches  in  diameter  and  as  tall  as  they  can 
find,  fifty  or  sixty  feet  high.  There  are  quantities  of  them  along  the  banks. 
I  saw  barge  after  barge,  barge  after  barge  upon  that  river  loaded  with 
those  poles  laid  across  the  barges  until  they  piled  up  fifteen  or  twenty  feet 
high  like  immense  loads  of  hay.  They  commence  at  some  place  where  they 
want  to  stop  that  cutting  away.  They  lay  those  poles  tops  to  the  bank  with 
cross  pieces  and  fasten  them  together  with  steel  cables  until  they  get  a 
j-trong  mat.  'ihey  make  the  mats  very  long  up  and  down  the  banks  about 
fifty  or  sixty  feet  wide,  then  load  them  with  hundreds  of  thousands  of  tons 
of  stone  piled  on  top  to  try  to  hold  the  bank.  The  old  river  comes  down 
and  goes  on  its  way  once  in  a  while,  and  once  in  a  while  it  is  right  in 
behind  the  mat  and  cuts  all  around  it.  I  saw  quantities  of  that  kind  of 
vork  all  gone  for  nothing. 

There  is  much  rich  land  lying  along  the  river,  the  Garden  of  Eden  if 
i*  could  only  be  used,  no  richer  land  in  the  world.  But  there  is  that  river 
once  or  twice  every  year  going  way  up  forty  or  fifty  feet  and  becoming 
thirty  to  eighty  miles  wide  over  all  that  land.  It  makes  itself  a  nuisance, 
except  where  the  states  have  put  their  levees  to  keep  the  water  back,  but 
I  have  already  told  you  how  futile  the  levees  are  if  the  river  takes  a  squint 
at  them. 

I  saw  them  driving  piles  in  New  Orleans,  sixty  to  seventy  feet  long 
It  was  just  like  sticking  a  pin  in  cheese.  Every  blow  would  settle  it,  per- 
haps from  a  foot  to  eighteen  inches  or  two  feet.  When  it  got  down  pretty 
well,  it  didn't  go  quite  as  fast,  but  it  never  reached  hard  pan.  And  that 
was  in  New  Orleans  where  the  channel  is  comparatively  straight.  If  you 
can  have  a  straight  channel,  you  can  handle  the  river,  but  where  it  is 
crooked,  you  can't. 

The  overfiow  land,  if  it  could  be  reclaimed,  is  immensely  valuable. 
The  people  who  own  that  land  are  interested  in  having  that  river  fixed  so 
that  it  does  not  overflow.  They  are  very  largely  interested  in  that,  as  the 
whole  country  is  interested  in  the  general  enterprise,  but  the  question  is. 


how  to  solve  that  problem.  There  is  a  way  they  can  to  a  certain  extent 
regulate  the  river,  although  as  I  have  said,  they  never  can  control  it.  Be- 
tween St.  Louis  and  Natchez,  about  nine  hundred  miles,  it  could  be  short- 
ened by  cutting  off  the  bends.  I  think  about  three  hundred  miles  can  be 
gained  in  that  distance.  The  current  of  that  river  is  about  four  miles  an 
hour.  To  shorten  the  distance  three  hundred  miles  would  mean  to  quicken 
that  current  from  four  to  five  days  in  going  that  distance  down  the  river. 
In  other  words,  a  certain  drop  of  water  would  pass  down  the  river  about 
four  days  quicker  than  it  now  does.  That  would  largely  increase  the  rap- 
idity of  the  stream.  It  at  the  same  time  would  obviate  the  cutting  at  the 
bends,  and  if  they  can  only  hold  it  a  straight  stream  they  can  control  it. 
The  trouble  is  to  make  it  straight. 

Now  as  I  say,  the  people  along  the  stream  are  largely  interested  in  the 
control  of  that  river  and  the  straightening  of  it,  so  that  the  overflow  will 
be  prevented.  It  means  hundreds  of  millions  of  dollars  to  those  people.  It 
means  something  to  all  of  us  too.  We  d,re  interested  in  that.  I  mentioned 
that  fact  in  a  talk  I  had  on  the  steamer  where  we  were  holding  a  public 
meeting,  and  I  said  the  whole  United  States  was  interested  with  the  people 
along  the  river  in  having  a  deep  waterway  and  a  control  of  the  river  as 
far  as  possible.  They  were  interested  as  a  matter  of  defense.  I  said  to 
them  that  the  commerce  upon  our  great  lakes  is  greater  than  all  the  com- 
merce of  the  rivers  in  the  United  States  put  together,  outside  of  perhaps 
me  North  and  East  Rivers.  That  commerce  today  is  protected  in  a  military 
P'ay  by  two  little  one-gun  gun  boats.  Under  the  provision  of  the  treaty  of 
18 18,  we  can't  put  any  more  there,  but  let  us  get  into  difficulty  with  the 
British  government  and  how  quickly  they  could  run  their  gun  boats  up  the 
Welland  canal  into  Lake  Erie,  how  quickly  they  could  sweep  every  ship  off 
the  lakes,  how  quicly  they  could  come  and  sweep  the  cities  out  of  existence 
along  the  great  lakes,  unprotected  except  by  field  gun  batteries  and  they 
can  get  out  of  reach  of  those.  A  deep  waterway  from  Lake  Michigan  into 
the  Gulf  of  Mexico  would  give  us  an  opportunity  to  run  our  gun  boats  up 
and  meet  them.  A  bright  lawyer  from  Missouri  followed  me,  and  he  madH 
a  good  deal  of  fun  of  me  because  I  was  afraid  of  Great  Britain.  He 
said,  "Why.  they  can  never  reach  us  out  here."  I  have  but  this  to  say  to 
those  who  make  light  of  the  question  of  national  defense  upon  our  lakes. 
Do  you  know  that  at  Halifax  in  Nova  Scotia  and  on  Vancouver  Island  the 
iSritish  government  has  fortresses  almost  as  impregnable  as  Gibraltar. 
What  are  they  there  for?  For  no  other  purpose  on  God's  earth  but  as  the 
basis  of  war  against  the  United  States.  That  is  what  they  are  there  for. 
"But,"  said  my  friend  from  Missouri,  "Great  Britain  daren't  touch  us." 
No,  at  the  present  time,  no.  Great  Britain  is  under  bonds  to  keep  the  peace. 
She  is  having  about  all  that  she  can  attend  to  over  in  India.  Canada  and 
Australia  feel  pretty  independent.  When  called  upon  by  the  British  govern- 
ment to  contribute  to  the  increase  of  the  King's  navy,  they  said,  "We 
will  build  ships  and  keep  them,  but  we  will  lend  them  to  you  if  you  get 
into  trouble."  That 4s  the  condition  between  Great  Britain  and  her  colon- 
ies. But  go  back  with  me  less  than  fifty  years  and  you  will  see  the  whole 
front  of  Great  Britain  blustering  with  threats  against  us  at  the  time  of 
the  Trent  affair.     Perhaps  one  or  two  here  may  remember  that  but  less 

5 


than  fifty  years  ago,  the  whole  power  of  the  British  Government  was  ready 
to  annihilate  us  simply  because  we  took  two  Confederate  delegates  from  a 
British  ship  who  were  going  to  Euiope  to  get  a  recognition  of  Southern 
Confederacy.  Nothing  saved  us  but  the  wise  statesmanship  of  Lincoln.  He 
told  Seward  that  we  must  apologize  for  trespassing  upon  the  British  flag 
.ird  surrender  Mason  and  Slidell.  The  magnificent  work  of  Henry  Ward 
Beecher  and  Bishop  Mcllvain,  that  Lincoln's  wisdom  sent  to  England, 
saved  to  us  the  friendship  of  the  people  of  Great  Britain. 

Now,  I  say,  let  something  happen  between  us  and  Great  Britain. 
Things  change  in  a  little  while.  Fifty  or  a  hundred  years  may  make  a 
change  and  we  may  have  to  fight  for  ou^  existence.  The  man  who  smiles 
cr  sneers  at  the  question  of  preparing  a  defense  would  rest  quiet  over  a 
sleeping  volcano.  He  don't  knov/  what  he  is  talking  about.  If  he  will  only 
look  at  those  fortresses  that  stand  at  both  sides  of  our  continent,  he  will 
eee  why  we  are  all  interested  in  getting  our  ships  up  through  to  the  lakes. 
■^1  hat  is  the  interest  v/e  have  here  very  largely.  Of  course,  we  are  interest- 
ed in  the  general  welfare  of  our  fellowman  wherever  they  may  be.  We  are 
:ill  interested  in  improving  the  overflow  lands  of  tlie  Mississippi  Valley. 
What  benefits  those  people  will  benefit  us.  I  can  see  no  reason  why  they 
should  not  be  treated  as  our  government  is  now  treating  the  desert  lands 
that  it  is  spending  millions  of  dollars  to  reclaim  by  irrigation.  It  charges 
a  tax  for  the  use  of  the  water  and  by  and  by  the  money  is  all  going  to  come 
liack.  I  don't  see  why,  if  we  improve  the  lands  along  the  Mississippi  River, 
the  same  principle  should  not  apply,  so  we  may  have  a  rolling  fund  to  car- 
rj  on  the  improvements.  Whatever  improvements  are  made  cannot  be  per- 
manent. It  will  have  to  be  all  the  time  repaired  and  added  to.  The  river  is 
never  going  to  let  Uncle  Sam  boss  it 

It  may  be  regulated  to  a  certain  extent.  I  have  suggested  that  thre>3 
hundred  miles  could  be  taken  out  by  shortening  bends.  Another  improve- 
ment would  be  retaining  dams  at  the  head  waters  of  the  streams,  so  that 
immense  quantities  of  water  could  be  held  back  at  fiood  time  and  released, 
at  periods  of  drought,  and  in  that  way  regulate  largely  the  flow  of  those 
streams.  That  has  got  to  be,  not  the  Mississippi  alone,  but  all  the  tributar- 
ies that  come  in;  they  have  all  got  to  be  treated  in  that  way  to  hold  back 
the  flood  water. 

Along  the  line  of  the  river,  take  it  from  St.  Paul  to  New  Orleans,  there 
are  but  few  prosperous  cities,  St.  Paul  and  Minneapolis,  Dubuque,  Daven- 
port and  Burlington  are  fairly  prosperous,  St.  Louis  is  growing,  now  a 
city  of  over  700,000  inhabitants  and  a  magnificent  city,  Memphis  is 
growing.  New  Orleans  is  growing,  ali  because  of  railroads  but  the  rest  of 
the  cities,  while  they  exist  that  is  about  all  you  can  say.  We  stopped  and 
went  up  into  a  number  of  them,  but  the  life  of  business  was  not  there. 

Fifty-one  years  ago  I  was  living  in  Cincinnati,  and  then  its  quays  were 
alive  with  the  shipping  of  the  rivers.  Hundreds  of  steamers  were  coming 
and  going.  Nearly  fifty  years  ago  I  commenced  to  travel  up  and  down  th( 
lakes,  from  Duluth  to  Cleveland.  The  lakes  were  lined  then  with  manj 
nice  villages,  steamers  stopping  at  every  one  of  them.  You  could  buy  s 
ticket  at  Buffalo,  Cleveland  or  Detroit,  to  any  one  of  those  ports  all  witl 
deep  water.    Today  you  cannot  do  it,  nor  can  you  go  to  Cincinnati  and  bu: 


a  ticket  to  any  place  down  the  river.  The  steamers  are  not  there.  Why  i: 
it  ?  There  has  been  a  march  of  progress  since  then.  Railroads  have  come 
in.  It  takes  time  to  transport  anything  by  water.  I  started  from  St.  Louis 
to  go  to  New  Orleans,  eleven  hundred  and  some  odd  miles,  and  I  was  from 
Monday  at  5  p.  m.  until  eleven  a.  m.  Saturday  and  that  going  down  stream 
On  the  way  back,  I  left  New  Orleans  on  Tuesday  at  six  p.  m.  and  on  tht 
next  Wednesday  week  at  eight  a.  m.  jumped  the  boat  and  got  oi  the  cars 
lo  go  80  miles  to  St.  Louis.  It  was  too  slow  for  me.  Now  gentlemen,  that 
explains  the  whole  thing.  Time  is  a  value  today  in  commerce.  That  is  one 
of  the  difficulties  of  inducing  the  government  to  make  appropriations  to 
Sf;uander  o  nthe  river.  You  cannot  get  over  the  water  as  you  can  over  the 
land. 

Take   those   two   illustrations,   the   little   towns   that   have   gone  down 
and  don't  exist  now  along  the  chain  of  lakes  with  deep  w^aterway  and  the 
little  towns  two  or  three  miles  inland  where  the  railroads  have  come  and 
V  hich  are  prosperous.      It  is  just  so  with  the  rivers,  the  railroads     have 
taken  the  settlement  away  from  the  rivers.     Then  why     should  we  spend 
millions  of  dollars  to  deepen  the  river?     We  cannot     do  it  unless  we  join 
v.ith  it  national  defense.     Look  at  the  Panama  canall      What  carried  that 
vote  through  congress.  Do  you     know?     I  will  tell  you.     It  was  that  mag- 
nificant  trip  of  the  Oregon  from  Sar    Francisco  around  the  Horn  to  meet 
the  Spanish  fleet  that  moved  congress.     It  ^as  the  strategic  feature  of  get- 
ting our  fleets  across  quickly  to  defend  the  Atlantic  and  Pacific  coasts. 

I  said  in  our  public  meeting,  when  my  Missouri  friend  was  making 
light  of  the  military  feature,  and  I  say  to  you  here,  never  can  a  vote  pass 
Congress  for  a  deep  waterway  appropriation  for  the  river  unless  connected 
^vith  this  feature  of  the  national  defiiSe.     It  is  that  may  help  it  through. 

Nov>'  if  we  should  spend  monej  there,  how  should  we  spend  it,  in 
what  way?  What  is  to  be  done  first?  I  don't  believe  we  should  ever 
spend  a  dollar  until  we  have  it  thoroughly  surveyed,  and  a  full  and  com- 
plete "knowledge  of-  all  the  elements  that  go  into  the  question  are  reported 
ri.nd  reported  favorably.  I  am  in  favor  of  an  appropriation  foi:  that  kind  of 
an  investigaiiou  and  I  think  that  is  as  far  as  we  should  go  at  the  present 
time.  Unless  that  report  is  favorable,  I  would  not  appropriate  a  dollar  on 
the  Mississippi,  because  the  business  is  not  there  that  warrants  it  and  be- 
cause of  the  absolute  impossibility  of  controlling  the  river.  If  we  do  make 
an  appropriation,  I  think  it  should  be  coupled  with  a  condition  that  the 
overflow  lands  that  are  reclaimed  should  pay  a  portion  of  the  expense.  I 
believe  with  those  conditions  we  can  afford  to  investigate  the  matter  and 
that  is  my  conclusion. 

I  could  talk  to  you  a  good  deal  along  this  line  but  I  want  to  tell  you 
a  little  about  other  things  1  saw  for  I  think  they  are  interesting.  I  went 
u).  through  New  Orleans.  I  traveled  around  it;  I  went  to  the  outskirts; 
i  went  w^iiere  they  bury  their  dead;  to  the  museum  of  the  State  Historical 
oociety,  and  down  through  Royal  street  where  the  curio  shops  are  kept. 

New  Orleans  is  in  two  parts,  up  town  and  down  town.  Down  town  is 
the  old  French  Quarter;  up  town  is  the  new  part.  It  is  a  magnificent  city 
and  growing  rapidly,  but  the  interesting  part  was  the  old  French  quarter. 
The  river  comes  around  here  in  a  great  crescent.  Right  in  the  heart  of  the 


old  quai'ter  is  Jackson  Square,  where  stands  an  equestrian  statute  of 
Andrew  Jackson.  When  it  was  unveiled,  that  ceremony  was  performed  by 
Henry  Clay.  You  remember,  during  the  War  of  the  rebellion,  Ben  Butler 
■Has  military  governor  of  New  Orleans.  The  base  of  that  statue  is  an  im- 
mense pedestal  of  granite.  On  either  side  he  caused  to  be  engraved,  "The 
rnion  must  and  shall  be  preserved."  That  was  during  the  war.  The  in- 
scription remains  there  today  just  as  he  carved  it.  I  well  remember  the 
indignation  it  caused  throughout  the  South  when  Butler  put  that  upon  the 
Fjonument,  but  no  sacrilegious  hand  has  ever  attempted  to  erase  it.  It  is 
there,  perhaps  will  stay  there  forever.  I  hope  it  will.  That  is  an  inspira- 
tion from  Jackson's  proclamation.  It  was  in  1832  when  Jackson  issued  his 
South  Carolina  nullification  proclamation  and  said  that  "if  it  hadn't  been 
obeyed  I  would  have  hung  them  as  high  as  Haman  and  posterity  would 
have  pronounced  it  the  best  act  of  my  life." 

Right  opposite  this  square  is  the  old  St.  Louis  cathedral,  nearly  two 
hundred  years  old.  On  either  side  of  that  cathedral  are  two  fine  build- 
ings, just  exactly  alike  architecturally.  One  is  occupied  by  the  supreme 
court  and  the  other  by  the  civil  courts.  The  supreme  court  is  soon  going 
to  leave  what  is  called  theCabildo  and  the  State  Historical  society  is  going 
to  use  it  for  its  museum.  This  is  right  in  the  center  of  the  old  French 
quarter,  once  the  most  prosperous,  the  most  fashionable  poriion  of  the 
city.  There  was  more  wealth,  more  luxury,  more  extravagent  living  here 
than  any  where  on  the  continent.  Today  it  is  dead;  the  dead  heart  of  a  live 
city.  I  saw  magnificent  buildings  there  with  granite  columns,  fluted  mon- 
olith, with  the  windows  knocked  out  and  boarded  up.  Through  the  cracks 
I  saw  the  empty  disordered  rooms,  once  arristocratic  hives  of  business  and 
on  the  other  side  of  the  street  a  new  marble  two  million  dollar  court 
house  just  finished.     There  is  the  contrast  between  today  and  the  past. 

If  you  care  to  study  the  old  families,  the  French  and  Spanish,  go  into 
the  curio  shops  and  see  the  beautiful  furniture  there  for  sale,  household 
goods  of  every  conceivable  nature,  chandeliers,  candlebra,  sideboards,  bed- 
steads with  great  high  carved  posts,  with  the  prices  running  into  hundreds 
of  dollars.  There  were  candlebra  with  brilliants  on  for  $600,  a  four  post 
bedstead  with  carved  posts  for  |150,  a  pair  of  andirons  with  goddesses  on 
for  $120.  What  story  do  we  read  there?  Before  the  war,  those  people 
lived  upon  the  labor  of  slaves.  They  owned  slaves.  They  were  wealthy. 
They  bought,  bred  and  sold  slaves.  They  spent  their  money  freely  and  all 
this  luxury  came  from  Paris,  London  or  Madrid.  They  lived  like  princes, 
but  the  war  swept  slavery  away  and  with  their  slaves  went  their  wealth 
and  their  earning  capacity  and  their  living.  As  time  went  by  that  chair 
had  to  go  to  the  curio  shop  and  then  this  one  to  get  the  wherewith  to  live. 
They  had  been  brought  up  in  luxury.  They  had  never  been  taught  to  do  a 
useful   thing  and   they  couldn't   earn   their  living. 

On  the  other  side  of  Jackson  Square,  flanking  it,  are  two  magnificent 
buildings  the  whole  length  of  that  square.  Handsome  architecturally,  they 
were  built  during  the  time  of  the  southern  prosperity,  based  upon  slavery. 
Way  back  in  1846  those  buildings  were  put  up  by  the  Baroness  de  Poutal- 
ba.  They  represent  the  Tulleries  in  Paris  somewhat.  Today  they  are  occu- 
pied by     "washy,  washy  houses,"  old  clothes  storage  rooms,     negro  quar- 


ters  and  as  tenement  houses.  A  good  many  of  the  rooms  are  shut  up.  That 
was  the  result  of  the  sweeping  away  of  slavery  and  it  left  those  people 
poor,  their  educatic>i,  bringing  up  and  habits  left  them  poor  indeed  because 
they  had  no  other  resources.  Those  curio  shops  are  full  of  the  luxuries 
they  had.    There  you  can  study  the  old  time  folk-lore  of  the  creole  days. 

Right  in  tnat  Quarter,  a  little  ways  from  this  Square  is  the  old 
French  theatre.  I  went  there.  I  saw  a  magnificent  spectacular  display  of 
a  Jewish  character  where  an  old  Jew  had  incurred  the  enmity  of  a  high 
church  dignitary.  It  was  a  play  that  brought  out  the  best  society  in  New 
Orleans.  I  had  my  opera  glasses  with  me  and  Major  Adams  and  myself 
had  a  chance  to  witness  a  display  of  diamonds — seldom  seen  in  any  other 
theatre. 

I  stood  upon  the  deck  of  our  steamer  and  watched  the  officers  of  an- 
other steamer  hire  a  crew  on  the  levees.  Perhaps  there  were  two  hundred 
colored  people,  all  wanting  a  job  to  go  up  the  Red  River  on  a  steamer.  It 
took  those  officers  until  nearly  midnight  to  pick  out  from  that  crowd  of 
applicants  those  they  would  trust  to  take  with  them.  The  clerk  of  the  boat- 
we  were  on  said:  "Those  people  are  all  known.  So  many  of  them  are 
broilers,  mischief  makers,  they  can't  take  them." 

The  slaves  or  descendants  of  slaves  are  now  as  thick  as  grasshoppers 
all  through  the  south  New  Orleans  and  other  cities  are  full  of  them.  On 
the  boat  we  were  on,  and  I  was  told  that  was  true  of  other  boats,  they  were 
paying  20c  an  hour  for  every  hour  in  the  twenty-four  that  those  boats 
v^ere  out.  The  deck  hands  had  to  v.  ork,  no  matter  where  or  when.  It 
might  be  midnight  or  three  or  four  o'clock  in  the  morning.  They  had  to 
be  ready  when  work  was  to  be  done.  They  had  no  beds  or  bunks;  they 
laid  down  on  the  deck  wherever  they  could  get  a  chance  and  slept  between 
stops.  They  were  fed  with  victuals  put  into  their  hands,  and  then  they 
hunted  a  quiet  place  to  eat.     Your  dogs  are  better  cared  for. 

I  stood  one  day  upon  the  upper  deck  of  the  steamer  when  we  were 
coming  up  the  river  and  every  little  while  when  we  came  to  a  Fand  bar, 
saw  them  "run  their  boat  with  the  lead."  They  would  have  to  sound  for 
the  depth.  Down  on  the  lower  deck  stood  a  negro  pitching  the  lead;  on  the 
deck  above  stood  another  and  away  up  in  the  pilot  house  was  the  pilot. 
The  fellow  on  the  lower  deck  in  a  guttural  snarling  voice  would  call  out 
"Five  feet;"  "five  feet"  cried  the  next  one  in  the  same  tone  of  voice.  I 
stood  where  I  could  see  their  faces.  No  lion  ever  looked  fiercer  than  they 
did  when  they  were  making  that  cry. 

One  crew  that  had  just  got  through  coaling  had  been  paid  off.  They 
immediately  got  down  on  their  knees  upon  the  deck  and  began  to  shoot 
craps  and  they  growled  at  each  other  like  a  pack  of  wolves. 

These  are  the  laboring  men  of  the  South.  They  won't  work  when  they 
have  any  money  in  their  pockets.  When  they  learned  the  fiotilla  carrying 
the  President  of  the  United  States  was  on  its  way,  they  all  stopped  work. 
From  one  end  of  that  river  to  the  other,  their  laborers  would  not  work. 
They  were  waiting  to  see  the  boats  go  by.  We  saw  thousands  of  them  on 
the  banks  watching  us  day  after  day.  This  shows  a  little  of  the  results 
that  have  followed  the  emancipation  of  the  slave.     They  are  free  today. 


Once  they  were  not  free.  They  couldn't  go  anywhere  without  a  written 
permit  and  they  had  to  work  when  they  were  able  to,  but  they  were  fed 
well  in  order  that  they  might  work.  Today  they  are  their  own  masters  and 
they  have  to  eat  what  they  can  get.  I  don't  think  they  live  as  well  today 
as  when  they  were  slaves  but  they  are  free.  Two  hundred  years  ago  tne 
poet  Campbell  in  his  "Pleasures  of  Hope"  asked  this  question: 

"When  shall  the  world  call  down  to  cleanse  her  shame. 

That  embryo  spirit  yet  without  a  name. 

Who  sternly  marking  on  his  native  soil 

The  blood,  the  anguish  and  the  toil, 

Shall  bid  each  righteous  heart  rejoice  to  see 

Peace  to  the  slave  and  vengeance  on  the  free?" 

Abraham  Lincoln  was  that  spirit.  He  called  down  freedom  for  the 
slave.  He  proclaimed  it,  and  today  we  are  seeing  the  vengeance  on  the 
tree,  for  those  slaves  are  the  masters  of  the  business  of  the  South.  Thev 
paralyzed  it  the  days  we  were  going  down  the  river  that  they  might  see  the 
flotilla.  In  all  the  cities  lying  along  that  river,  business  was  dead,  because 
the  negroes  would  not  work.  The  South  cannot  get  white  men.  They  have 
got  to  have  the  negro.  That  is  the  vengeance  upon  the  free  they  have  got 
to  suffer  and  God  only  knows  when  they  will  be  relieved. 


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